The bolded parts are all editing. Nobody was willing to tell Lucas he was wrong. Episode 1 was so close to being a good movie, but like 4 key things went wrong and it all spiraled downward. BTW, episode III was my favorite, so the whole trilogy wasn't a disaster.

Editing can help fix problems with plot, script, and characterizations, but ultimately it does not decide them. Plot and script are decided before editing begins (loooong before), while characterizations are the result of director-actor-writer collaboration. Editing is cutting together the film and sound clips into a coherent whole. Don't get me wrong, the films were poorly edited as well, but the other things I listed previously are also serious flaws with the films (prequels), and arguably detracted more from the films than the editing.

Now, if you're talking about the retconning that happened in the prequels, that's different, and something I would file under "plot".

I have A New Hope for the upcoming Star Wars film(s). Yeah, I went there. Yes, it was that cheesy. And yes, I'm cool with it.

Anyway, I'm going to be hopeful, yet skeptical, until things like a writer and director are announced. Given his hands down awesomely successful treatment of the Avengers, I think Joss Whedon could do some fun, interesting things for the series.

The whole problem is the Expanded Universe. While I have no problem with the novels and the directions they take the characters (for the most part. I won't get too much into this here), the major problem here will be where do they go with the story? The adventures of Luke, Leia, Han and all our other favorites are firmly established within the Star Wars timeline for a good forty years after the events of Episode 6, not to mention the ages of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and the others. Do they recast these extremely iconic characters and follow the events, perhaps, that occur shortly after the battle of Yavin (the Eye of Palpatine series)? Given the age of the actors, do they attempt a shortened version of Legacy or Fate of the Jedi? They could fast forward to the Legacy comic books following the adventures of Cade Skywalker. Or maybe they'll fill in the gaps in between Fate of the Jedi and Legacy?

It's certainly going to be interesting seeing who they get to pen a script, who they get to direct, and who they cast.

The problem here is in the timeline Zelkon. There really wasn't a split between your listed part 1 and part 2. In fact, he (i.e. Lucas) had originally wanted to do 3 trilogies even before he'd finished the "middle" section. In my opinion the flaw of execution was specifically in the chosen material for the first trilogy chronologically (i.e. 1~3 as opposed to 4~6). If they hadn't attempted to chain it together and use the same characters as a prequel trilogy yet still set it in the Star Wars universe then it all would have had a much better chance. In fact, since everything is cyclical they could have simply done a prior "empire" being overthrown. That would have been a very interesting contrast, the old heroes of legend compared to the new heroes of legend, heh.

Hopefully, the final trilogy, if it uses the characters from the middle three at all, will keep things very distantly connected to specific prior characters if there is any connection at all. *shrug*